An ultra-wideband wireless body area network: Evaluation in static and dynamic channel conditions

Abstract Wireless body area network is a collection of wearable wireless sensors placed around or in a human body that are used to monitor important information from a human body. A receiver (i.e. control unit) is required to connect these sensors to remote locations (i.e. hospital database and call centres). In this work an ultra-wideband (UWB) body sensor node has been designed and tested to analyze the realistic performance of a UWB-based wireless body area network. The results indicate that the locations of sensors and the control unit on a human body play an important role on the performance of the wireless body area network system. The work herein also investigates optimal receiver positions for different sensor configurations. The results are evaluated in both static and dynamic channel conditions based on data transmission from the UWB sensor node developed for wireless body area network applications. Four common sensor positions, namely the chest, head, wrist and waist and three receiver positions-chest, waist and arm are considered. The experiment is conducted in an Anechoic chamber to minimize the effects of the environment. In the static experiment, the subject under test remains motionless for the entire test duration. Under static channel conditions, it was seen that the transmission power can be reduced by 26 dB, when the receiver is positioned at the optimum point on the body. The evaluation of the dynamic channel condition is also performed by allowing the test subject to move the body as in a walking motion. Due to the body movements, the transmission power should be increased by 7 dB to maintain the same bit error rate as that of the static experiment.

[1]  Mehmet R. Yuce,et al.  Wireless telemetry for electronic pill technology , 2009, 2009 IEEE Sensors.

[2]  Mehmet Rasit Yuce,et al.  Implementation of wireless body area networks for healthcare systems , 2010 .

[3]  Zhihua Wang,et al.  Low power, non invasive UWB systems for WBAN and biomedical applications , 2010, 2010 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology Convergence (ICTC).

[4]  Jari Iinatti,et al.  Effect of body motion and the type of antenna on the measured UWB channel characteristics in medical applications of wireless body area networks , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband.

[5]  Moo Sung Chae,et al.  Wideband Communication for Implantable and Wearable Systems , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[6]  Alyssa B. Apsel,et al.  A Low Power Impulse Radio Design for Body-Area-Networks , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[7]  Yifan Chen,et al.  Cooperative Communications in Ultra-Wideband Wireless Body Area Networks: Channel Modeling and System Diversity Analysis , 2009, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[8]  Geert Van der Plas,et al.  Ultra-wide-band transmitter for low-power wireless body area networks: design and evaluation , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[9]  Yue Ping Zhang,et al.  Performance of UWB Impulse Radio With Planar Monopoles Over On-Human-Body Propagation Channel for Wireless Body Area Networks , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[10]  R. Michael Buehrer,et al.  Toward a Highly Accurate Ambulatory System for Clinical Gait Analysis via UWB Radios , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine.

[11]  K. Takizawa,et al.  Wireless Vital Sign Monitoring using Ultra Wideband-Based Personal Area Networks , 2007, 2007 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[12]  Mehmet R. Yuce,et al.  UWB-WBAN sensor node design , 2011, 2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[13]  Mehmet R. Yuce,et al.  Low data rate ultra wideband ECG monitoring system , 2008, 2008 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[14]  Mehmet R. Yuce,et al.  Analysis of a multi-access scheme and asynchronous transmit-only UWB for wireless body area networks , 2009, 2009 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[15]  T. Nakagawa,et al.  Fully integrated UWB-IR CMOS transceiver for wireless body area networks , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband.

[16]  W. Liu,et al.  A 128-Channel 6 mW Wireless Neural Recording IC With Spike Feature Extraction and UWB Transmitter , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

[17]  Jun-ichi Takada,et al.  Channel models for wireless body area networks. , 2008, Conference proceedings : ... Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual Conference.

[18]  Terence S. P. See,et al.  Experimental study of optimal UWB antenna location for ECG application , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband.

[19]  Z. N. Chen,et al.  Proximity effect of UWB antenna on human body , 2009, 2009 Asia Pacific Microwave Conference.